I co-ran a co-working space for many years in a zeitgeisty tech city as a side thing to keep my companies rent cheap (kind of.)
We were early holders of bitcoin meetups, we threw crypto events, we gave away schwag with those guys who 3d printed guns. We hosted "Young African Leaders" events (yali) and hosted some amazing people from overseas. We hosted the local 2600 meetup and other maker events. We hosted the local colleges Asian chamber of commerce events.
We threw parties with thousands of people filtering through our converted warehouse space.
We had actual communists and unabashed capitalists and new atheists and couldn't care less multi generational atheists and old burnouts and young idiots, people abandoned by their families, from loving families and Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus.. We had classes for robotics, pickling vegetables, we burned a lot of stuff and made some huge art installations.
We kicked people out for being shitty and insulting (which was extremely rare among members, totalling 3 people over many years). We occasionally reprimanded people who were fine in person but abusive online.
Hell is other people. I miss what we built and the ideas and companies and the hope and economic power our members could tap into.
But I do not miss the bad behavior, the guy who seemed cool and nerdy until he gets drunk and starts trying to physically corner women. The attempted rapists who came to some of our larger warehouse parties and had to be removed by police.
The assholes who came in with bad faith arguments or the copious number of bad faith actors trying to monetize our more inexperienced members.
We were a meatspace, old internet, freedom of speech group and we kept our facilities a little dingy just to keep things more maker oriented and attract less of the superficial.
Having seen it all in person it's always the bad faith actors, the predators, the non-makers and the fragile egos that come out. We did a good job in person having ideological, cultural and class diversity because "making" was our prime member criteria.
I don't see how it's possible on the internet at large. I've seen many terrible people in person and at least there were consequences for overtly evil or lying acts, I just don't see it happening on the consumer internets social media platforms.
Great perspective to read about and rings very true with my years "sitting at the city gates" in our modern times.
>I don't see how it's possible on the internet at large. I've seen many terrible people in person and at least there were consequences for overtly evil or lying acts, I just don't see it happening on the consumer internets social media platforms.
Everyone trying to control you is wondering where the switch in your head is that turns your brain off to the fact that they're controlling you.
Where's yours? Is it child porn? Hate speech? The futility of productive online discourse? Or isn't there one? ;)
We were early holders of bitcoin meetups, we threw crypto events, we gave away schwag with those guys who 3d printed guns. We hosted "Young African Leaders" events (yali) and hosted some amazing people from overseas. We hosted the local 2600 meetup and other maker events. We hosted the local colleges Asian chamber of commerce events.
We threw parties with thousands of people filtering through our converted warehouse space.
We had actual communists and unabashed capitalists and new atheists and couldn't care less multi generational atheists and old burnouts and young idiots, people abandoned by their families, from loving families and Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus.. We had classes for robotics, pickling vegetables, we burned a lot of stuff and made some huge art installations.
We kicked people out for being shitty and insulting (which was extremely rare among members, totalling 3 people over many years). We occasionally reprimanded people who were fine in person but abusive online.
Hell is other people. I miss what we built and the ideas and companies and the hope and economic power our members could tap into.
But I do not miss the bad behavior, the guy who seemed cool and nerdy until he gets drunk and starts trying to physically corner women. The attempted rapists who came to some of our larger warehouse parties and had to be removed by police.
The assholes who came in with bad faith arguments or the copious number of bad faith actors trying to monetize our more inexperienced members.
We were a meatspace, old internet, freedom of speech group and we kept our facilities a little dingy just to keep things more maker oriented and attract less of the superficial.
Having seen it all in person it's always the bad faith actors, the predators, the non-makers and the fragile egos that come out. We did a good job in person having ideological, cultural and class diversity because "making" was our prime member criteria.
I don't see how it's possible on the internet at large. I've seen many terrible people in person and at least there were consequences for overtly evil or lying acts, I just don't see it happening on the consumer internets social media platforms.
Great perspective to read about and rings very true with my years "sitting at the city gates" in our modern times.